Dec. 21 - A Year in the Wasatch Hollow Nature Preserve and Open Space (from Winter Solstice 2019 through Fall Equinox 2020

Today is Winter solstice - December 21 - officially at Dec 21, 9:19 pm
Sunrise at 7:48 am (121 degrees ESE) and Sunset at 5:03 pm (239 degrees) WSW.
The sun will be low in the southern arc of the sky at 23 degrees altitude. The length of the day
is at the shortest length of the season - at 9 hours and 15 minutes and 56 seconds.

A visit today at Wasatch Hollow Nature Preserve and Open Space revealed (in my opinion) one of the best days for bird watching - and count on bird species. Of course I saw the usual suspects:

Northern Flicker - up to 8 different Flickers on the walk - and they were busy going to the ground for food digging into the soft soil (it was 45 degrees at 1:30 pm) and flying back and forth across the open field in Wasatch Hollow Open Space. Often the Flickers would share the same ground with Woodhouse's Scrub Jay - both digging into the soil for food. Fox squirrels were also on the ground digging for food. I saw Dark-Eyed Junco's and two were willing to sit a bit longer for me to take photos - but they usually fly off into the next set of oak trees when they see me walking down the trail. They are very wary and difficult to capture with camera. I saw 4 Downy Woodpeckers on the walk - today they were a bit more difficult to capture with camera. They love the scrub oak trees.

I saw at least 10 different Magpies on the walk. They travel as a "pack" - and they remind me of a bird "gang" - strength in numbers - and are always squawking as they move about in the open space. They do harass Hawks in the area. And speaking of - I did get to see a Western Red-tailed Hawk flying overhead and land in a nearby tall conifer tree. This made my day - and again - the arrival of the Red-Tailed Hawk is very predictable...usually between noon and 2:00 pm almost everyday - in this open space.

I think the "warmer" weather brought out the bird species today. A great day to observe many species on one walk in and then back out.

Posted on December 22, 2019 03:19 PM by scottdwright